


Something Helpful

by Sven_Wolfstrom92



Category: Original Work
Genre: Other, Randomness, Research, Tarot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-08
Updated: 2019-08-08
Packaged: 2020-08-16 02:40:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20168119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sven_Wolfstrom92/pseuds/Sven_Wolfstrom92
Summary: I wrote this out by hand, copied straight from an old book, but sadly I didn't write down the author or the name of the book...





	Something Helpful

** **Tarot Cards** **

A set of seventy-eight playing cards decorated with a variable set of fantastic and mystical diagrams, symbols, and illustrations. The earliest deck in existence is dated circa 1432. Researcher Norman Schwarz has dated the Tarot to between 312 and 64 BC from various clues such as inclusion of earlier astronomical constellations as lover and the kings.

The cards are grouped into the Major Arcana (twenty-two trump cards) and the Minor Arcana (fifty-six suit cards). The four suits consists of 14 cards each, are through ten, page, knight, queen, and king. These cards were first in use in the mid-1400s and have been used ever since by gullible persons to cast fortunes.

The modern deck of 52 cards used in gambling was derived from the Tarot deck, the suits being transmuted so that “Swords” became “Spades”, “Cups” became “Hearts”, “Wands” became clubs, and “Coins” (or “Pentacles”) became “Diamonds” [In Spain these suits were “Palomas”, “Rosas”, “Conejos”, and “Dineros”; in France “Piques”, “Choer”, “Trefles”, and “Correaux”]. These are the cards that were called the Minor Arcana. Originally, there were four “Court” cards, but the knight (or lavalli) card was dropped in the modern deck resulting in 4x13 cards, while the Tarot retained 4x14.

The Major Arcana of twenty-two cards are individual figures:

0\. The Fool  
1\. The Magician  
2\. The High Priestess  
3\. The Empress  
4\. The Emperor  
5\. The Pope  
6\. The Lovers  
7\. The Chariot  
8\. Justice  
9\. The Hermit  
10\. The Wheel of Fortune  
11\. Strength  
12\. The Hang Man  
13\. Death  
14\. Temperance  
15\. The Devil  
16\. The House of God  
17\. The Star  
18\. The Moon  
19\. The Sun  
20\. Judgment  
21\. The World

(In some versions of the Tarot, the Fool, is given the number 21 and the World becomes 22. There is no known difference in accuracy between the two systems as far as prophetic value is concerned).

For use as a divinatory device, the Tarot deck is dealt out in various patterns and interpreted by a gifted “reader”. The fact that the deck is not dealt out into the same pattern fifteen minutes later is rationalized by occultists by claiming that in that short span of time, a person’s fortune can change too. That would seem to call for rather frequent readings if the system is to be any use whatsoever.

The form of deck most used today is the Golden Dawn, designed by A.E, a mystic, and drawn by artist Pamela Coleman Smith about 1900. The art of reading the cards has been referred to as the “ars notoria”.


End file.
